Ready, Steady, Cook

Ready Steady Cook this year was another culinary classic set up by Lara and her team!  The four boys’ teams, led by the four of Australia’s finest Master Chefs, had to make their supper basically and were judged along the way for teamwork, how they cleaned down, innovation, presentation and of course, taste.  There was also a Fruit and Veg Identification round and with the identification round out of the way, the chefs were ready and steady.

The tasks were to make pizza, chips and cookies from Lara’s ingredients and recipes.  One of the teams was marked down slightly for including vanilla essence in their pizza.  However Blumenthastic they thought this might be, the strict judge was looking for something more mainstream.  It soon became obvious that the first prize was going to head to Team 4, Ratatouille, headed up by Miss Michelin Star Evans, whose cookies were amazing.  Despite having Mssrs Beggs and Cowan in charge of them, Teams 2 and 3, Benyon’s Butchers and The Chuckers In, did rather well in making well cooked and tasty food with the exception of the aforementioned vanilla essence and ham pizza.  Which left Team 1 led by Miss Powell,  who were very good indeed – probably making the best tasting cookies in the semi-professional opinion of the head judge.

So, the first prize of a slap-up banquet went to Ratatouille for their overall mastery of all the disciplines of the competition.  Many thanks must go to the boys for being fun and serious in equal measure, to Lara and her team for plating up the whole thing, to the Aussies, and to the judges for their expert palates and wise advice.

Roll on next year, where 2018’s Year 7 chefs will have to use their loaf to bring home the bacon in Elstree’s Ready Steady Cook!

ADL